A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies

B >> Bartolome de las Casas >> A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies

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There was the House of a Puissant Potentate scituated about Ten or
Fifteen Miles from _Panama_, whose name was _Paris_, very Rich in Gold;
and the _Spaniards_ gave him a visit, who were entertained with
Fraternal Kindness, and Courteously received, and of his own accord,
presented the Captain with a Gift of Fifteen Thousand Crowns; who was
of opinion, as well as the rest of the _Spaniards_, that he who
bestow'd such a quantity of Money _gratis_, was the Master of vast
Treasure; whereupon they counterfeit a pretended Departure, but
returning about the Fourth Night-Watch, and entring the City privily
upon a surprize, which they thought was sufficiently secur'd,
consecrated it with many Citizens to the Flames, and robb'd them of
Fifty or Sixty Thousand Crowns. The _Dynast_ or Prince escaped with
his Life, and gathering together as great a Number of Men as he could
possibly at that instant of time, and Three or Four Days being elapsed,
pursued the _Spaniards_, who had depriv'd him also by Violence and
Rapine of a Hundred and Thirty or Forty Thousand Crowns, and pouring in
upon them, recover'd all his Gold with the destruction of Fifty
_Spaniards_, but the remainder of them having receiv'd many Wounds in
that Rencounter betook them to their Heels and sav'd themselves by
flight: but in few days after the _Spaniards_ return, and fall upon the
said _Casic_ well-arm'd and overthrow him and all his Forces, and they
who out-liv'd the Combat, to their great Misfortune, were expos'd to
the usual and frequently mention'd Bondage.

_Of the Province of_ NICARAQUA.

The said Tyrant _An. Dom._ 1522. proceeded farther very unfortunately
to the Subjugation of Conquest of this Province. In truth no Person
can satisfactorily or sufficiently express the Fertility, Temperateness
of the Climate, or the Multitude of the Inhabitants of _Nicaraqua_,
which was almost infinite and admirable; for this Region contain'd some
Cities that were Four Miles long; and the abundance of Fruits of the
Earth (which was the cause of such a Concourse of People) was highly
commendable. The People of this place, because the Country was Level
and Plain, destitute of Mountains, so very delightful and pleasant,
that they could not leave it without great grief, and much
dissatisfaction, they were therefore tormented with the greater
Vexations and Persecutions, and forced to bear the _Spanish_ Tyranny
and Servitude, which as much Patience as they were Masters of: Add
farther that they were peaceable and meek spirited. This Tyrant with
these Complices of his Cruelty did afflict this Nation (whose advice he
made use of in destroying the other Kingdoms) with such and so many
great Dammages, Slaughters, Injustice, Slaver, and Barbarisme, that a
Tongue, though of Iron, could not express them all fully. He sent into
the Province (which is larger than the County of _Ruscinia_) Fifty
Horse-Men, who put all the People to the Edge of the Sword, sparing
neither Age nor Sex upon the most trivial and inconsiderable occasion:
As for Example, if they did not come to them with all possible speed,
when called; and bring the imposed burthen of _Mahid_ (which signifies
Corn in their Dialect) or if they did not bring the Number of _Indians_
required to his own, and the Service or rather Servitude of his
Associates. And the Country being all Campaign or Level, no Person was
able to withstand the Hellish Fury of their Horses.

He commanded the _Spaniards_ to make Excursions, that is, to rob other
Provinces, permitting and granting these Theiving Rogues leave to take
away by force as many of these peacable People as they could, who being
iron'd (that they might not sink under the Burthen of Sixty or Eighty
Pound weight) it frequently hapned, that of Four Thousand _Indians_,
Six only returned home, and so they dyed by the way; but if any of them
chanced to faint, being tired with over-weighty Burthens, or through
great Hunger and Thirst should be siezed with a Distemper; or too much
Debility and Weakness, that they might not spend time in taking off
their Fetters, they beheaded them, so the Head fell one way, and the
Body another: The _Indians_ when they spied the _Spaniards_ making
preparations for such Journeys, knowing very well, that few, or none
returned home alive, just upon their setting out with Sighs and Tears,
burst out into these or the like Expressions.

Those were Journeys, which we travelled frequently in the service of
Christians, and in some tract of time we return'd to our Habitations,
Wives and Children: But now there being no hope of a return, we are for
ever depriv'd of their Sight and Conversation.

It hapned also, that the same President would dissipate or disperse the
_Indians de novo_ at his own pleasure, to the end (as it was reported)
he might violently force the _Indians_ away from such as did infest or
molest him; and dispose of them to others; upon which it fell out, that
for the space of a Year complete, there was no sowing or planting: And
when they wanted Bread, the _Spaniards_ did by force plunder the
_Indians_ of the whole stock of Corn that they had laid up for the
support of their Families, and by these indirect Courses above Thirty
Thousand perished with Hunger. Nay it fortun'd at one time, that a
Woman opprest with insufferable Hunger, depriv'd her own Son of his
Life to preserve her own.

In this Province also they brought many to an untimely End, loading
their Shoulders with heavy planks and pieces of Timer, which they were
compell'd to carry to a Haven Forty Miles distant, in order to their
building of Ships; sending them likewise unto the Mountains to find out
Hony and Wax, where they were devour'd by Tygers; nay they loaded Women
impregnated with Carriage and Burthens fit for beasts.

But no greater pest was there that could unpeople this Province, than
the License granted the _Spaniards_ by this Governour, to demand
Captives from the _Casics_ and Potentates of this Region; for at the
Expiration of Four or Five Months, or as often as they obtain'd leave
of the Governour to demand them, they deliver'd them up Fifty Servants,
and the _Spaniards_ terrified them with Menaces, that if they did not
obey them in answering their unreasonable Demands, they should be burnt
alive, or baited to Death by Dogs. Now the _Indians_ are but slenderly
stor'd with Servants; for it is much if a _Casic_ hath Three or Four in
his Retinue, therefore they have recourse to the Subjects; and when
they had, in the first place, seized the Orphans, they required
earnestly and instantly one Son of the Parent, who had but Two, and Two
of him that had but Three, and for the Lord of the place satisfied the
desires of the Tyrant, not without the Effusion of Tears and Groans of
the People, who (as it seems) were very careful of their Children. And
this being frequently repeated in the space between the Year 1523, and
1533, the Kingdom lost all their Inhabitants, for in Six or Seven Years
time there were constantly Five or Six Ships made ready to be fraighted
with _Indians_ that were sold in the Regions of _Panama_ and
_Perusium_, where they all dyed; for it is by dayly Experience prov'd
and known, that the _Indians_ when Transported out of their Native
Country into any other, soon dye; because they are shortned in their
allowance of Food, and the Task impos'd on them no ways dimished, they
being only bought for Labour. And by this means, there have been taken
out of this Province Five Hundred Thousand Inhabitants and upward, who
before were Freemen, and made Slaves, and in the Wars made on them, and
the horrid Bondage they were reduc'd unto Fifty or Sixty Thousand more
have perished, and to this day very many still are destroy'd. Now all
these Slaughters have been committed within the space of Fourteen years
inclusively, possibly in this Province of _Nicaraqua_ there remains
Four or Five Thousand Men who are put to Death by ordinary and personal
Opressions, whereas (according to what is said already) it did exceed
other Countries of the World in multitude of People.

_Of new_ SPAIN.

New _Spain_ was discovered _Anno Dom._ 1517. and in the detection there
was no first or second Attempt, but all were exposed to slaughter. The
year ensuing those _Spaniards_ (who style themselves Christians) came
thither to rob, kill and slay, though they pretend they undertook this
Voyage to people the Countrey. From this year to the present, _viz._
1542. the Injustice, Violence and Tyranny of the _Spaniards_ came to
the highest degree of extremety: for they had shook hands with and bid
adieu to all fear of God and the King, unmindful of themselves in this
sad and deplorable condition, for the Destructions, Cruelties,
Butcheries, Devastations, the Domolishing of Cities, Depradations,
_&c._ which they perpetrated in so many and such ample Kingdoms, are
such and so great, and strike the minds of Men with so great horror,
that all we have related before are inconsiderable comparatively to
those which have been acted from the year 1518 to 1542, and to this
very month of _September_ that we now live to see the most heavy,
grievous and detestable things are committed, that the Rule we laid
down before as a Maxim might be induputably verified, to wit, that from
the beginning they ran headlong from bad to worse, and were overcome in
their Diabolical acts and wickedness only by themselves.

Thus from the first entrance of the _Spaniards_ into _New Spain_, which
hapned on the 18th day of _April_ in the said month of the year 1518,
to 1530, the space of ten whole years, there was no end or period put
to the Destruction and Slaughters committed by the merciless hands of
the Sanguinary and Blood-thirsty Spaniard in the Continent, or space of
450 Miles round about _Mexico_, and the adjacent or neighboring parts,
which might contain four or five spatious Kingdoms, that neither for
magnitude or fertility would give _Spain_ her self the pre-eminance.
This intire Region was more populous then _Toledo, Sevil, Valedolid,
Saragoza,_ and _Faventia_; and there is not at this day in all of them
so many people, nor when they flourisht in their greatest height and
splendor was there such a number, as inhabited that Region, which
embraceth in its Circumference, four hundred and eighty Miles. Within
these twelve years the Spaniards have destroyed in the Said Countinent,
by Spears, Fire and Sword, computing Men, Women, Youth, and Children
above Four Millions of people in these their Acquests or Conquests (for
under that word they mask their Cruel Actions) or rather those of the
Turk himself, which are reported of them, tending to the ruin of the
Catholick Cause, together with their Invasions and Unjust Wars,
contrarty to and condemned by Divine as well as Human Laws; nor are
they reckoned in this number who perished by their more then _Egyptian_
Bondage and usual Oppressions.

There is no Tongue, Art, or Human knowledge can recite the horrid
Impieties, which these Capital Enemies to Government and all Mankind
have been guilty of at several times and in several Nations; nor can
the circumstantial Aggravations of some of their wicked Acts be
unfolded or display'd by any manner of Industry, time or writing, but
yet I will say somewhat of every individual particular thing, which
this protestation and Oath, that I conceive I am not able to comprehend
one of a Thousand.

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_Of_ New Spain _in Particular_.

Among other Slaughters this also they perpetrated in the most spacious
City of _Cholula_, which consisted of Thirty Thousand Families; all the
Chief Rulers of that Region and Neighboring places, but first the
Priests with their High Priest going to meet the Spaniards in Pomp and
State, and to the end they might give them a more reverential and
honourable reception appointed them to be in the middle of the
Solemnity, that so being entertained in the Appartments of the most
powerful and principal Noblemen, they might be lodged in the City. The
Spaniards presently consult about their slaughter or castigation (as
they term it) that they might fill every corner of this Region by their
Cruelties and wicked Deeds with terror and consternation; for in all
the Countries that they came they took this course, that immediately at
their first arrival they committed some notorious butcheries, which
made those Innocent Sheep tremble for fear. To this purpose therefore
they sent to the Governours and Nobles of the Cities, and all Places
subject unto them, together with their supream Lord, that they should
appear before them, and no soner did they attend in expectation of some
Capitulation or discourse with the Spanish Commander, but they were
presently seized upon and detained prisoners before any one could
advertise or give them notice of their Captivity. They demanded of
them six thousand _Indians_ to drudge for them in the carriage of their
bag and baggage; and as soon as they came the _Spaniards_ clapt them
into the Yards belonging to their Houses and there inclosed them all.
It was a thing worthy of pity and compassion to behold this wretches
people in what a condition they were when they prepared themselves to
receive the burthens laid on them by the Spaniards. They came to them
naked, their Privities only vail'd, their Shoulders loaden with food;
only covered with a Net, they laid themselves quietly on the ground,
and shrinking in their Bodies like poor Wretches, exposed themselves to
their Swords: Thus being all gathered together in ther Yards, some of
the Spaniards Armed held the doors to drive them away if attempting to
approach, and others with Lances and Swords Butcher these Innocents so
that not one of them escaped, but two or three days after some of them,
who hid themselves among the dead bodies, being all over besprinkled
with blood and gore, presented themselves to the Spaniards, imporing
their mercy and the prolongation of their Lives with tears in their
Eyes and all imaginable submission, yet they, not in the least moved
with pity or compassion, tore them in pieces: but all the Chief
Governours who were above one hundred in number, were kept bound, whom
the Captain commanded to be affixed to posts and burnt; yet the King of
the whole Countrey escaped, and betook himself with a Train of thirty
or forty Gentlemen, to a Temple (called in their Tongue _Quu_) which he
made use of as a Castle or Place of Defence, and there defended himself
a great part of the day, but the Spaniards who suffer none to escape
out of their clutches, especially Souldiers, setting fire to the
Temple, burnt all those that were there inclosed, who brake out into
these dying words and exclamations. O profligate Men, what injury have
we done you to occasion our death! Go, go to _Mexico_, where our
supream Lord _Montencuma_ will revenge our cause upon your persons.
And 'tis reported, while the Spaniards were engated in this Tragedy
destroying six or seven thousand Men, that their Commander with great
rejoycing sang this following Ayre;

_Mira_ Nero _de_ Tarpeia, Roma _como se ardia,
Gritos de_ Ninos _y Vieyot, y el de nadase dolia._

_From the_ Tarpeian _still Nero espies_
Rome _all in Flames with unrelenting Eyes,_
_And hears of young and old the dreadful Cries._

They also committed a very great Butchery in the City _Tepeara_, which
was larger and better stored with Houses than the former; and here they
Massacred an incredible number with the point of the Sword.

Setting sail from _Cholula_, they steer'd their course to _Mexico_,
whose King sent his Nobles and Peers with abundance of Presents to meet
them by the way, testifying by divers sorts of Recreations how grateful
their arrival was and acceptable to him: but when they came to a steep
Hill, his brother went forward to meet them accompanied with many
Noblemen who brought them many gifts in Gold, Silver, and Robes
Emboidered with Gold and at their entrance into the City, the King
himself carried in a golden Litter, together (with the whole Court)
attended them to the Palace prepared for their reception; and that very
day as I was informed by some persons then and there present by a grand
piece of Treachery, they took the very great King _Montencuma_, never
so much as dreaming of any such surprize, and put him into the custody
of eighty Soldiers, and afterward loaded this Legs with irons; but all
these things being passed over with a light pencil of which much might
be said, one thing I will discover acted by them, that may merit your
obervation. When the Captain arrived at the Haven, to fight with a
Spanish Officer, who made War against him, and left another with an
hundred Soldiers, more or less as a Guard to King _Montencuma_, it came
into their heads, that to act somewhat worth remembrance, that the
dread of their Cruelty might be more and more apprehended, and greatly
increased.

In the interim all the Nobility and Commonality of the City thought of
nothing else, but how to exhilarate the Spirit of their Captive King,
and solace him during his Confinement with varity of diversions and
Recreations; and among the rest this was one, _viz._, Revellings and
Dances which they celebrated in all Streets and Highways, by night and
they in their Idiom term _Mirotes_, as the Islanders do _Arcytos_; to
these Masques and nocturnal Jigs they usually go with all their Riches,
Costly Vestments and Robes, together with any thing that is pretious
and glorious, being wholly addicted to this humor, nor is there any
greater token among them then this of their extraordinary exultation
and rejoycing. The Nobles in like manner, and Princes of the Blood
Royal every one according to his degree exercise these Masques and
Dances, in some place adjoyning to the House where their King and Lord
is detained Prisoner. Now there were not far from the Palace about
2000 Young Noblemen who were the issue of the greatest Potentates of
the Kingom, and indeed the flower of the whole Nobility of King
_Motencuma_, and a _Spanish_ Captain went to visit them with some
Soldiers, and sent others to the rest of the places in the City where
these Revellings were kept, under pretence only of being spectators of
the solemnity. Now the Captain had commanded, that, at a certain hour
appointed they should fall upon these Revellers, and he himself
approaching the _Indians_ very busie at their Dancing, said, _San Jago_
(that is St. _James_ it seems that was the Word) _Let us rush in upon
them_, which was no sooner heard, but they all began with their naked
Swords in hand to pierce their tender and naked Bodies, and spill their
generous and Noble blood, till not one of them was left alive on the
place, and the rest following his example in other parts, (to their
inexpressible stupefaction and grief) seized on all these Provinces.
Nor will the Inhabitants till the General conflagration ever
discontinue the Celebration of these Festivals, and the Lamentation and
Singing with certain kind of Rhythmes in their _Arcytos_, the doleful
ditty of the Calamity and Ruin of this Seminary of the antient Nobility
of the whole Kingdom, which was their frequent Pride and Glory.

The _Indians_ seeing this not to be exampled cruelty and iniquity
executed against such a number of guiltless persons, and also bearing
with incredible patience the unjust Imprisonment of their King, from
whom they had an absolute Command not to take up Arms against the
_Spaniard_, the whole City was suddenly up in Arms fell on the
_Spaniards_ and wounded many of them, the rest hardly escaping; but
they presenting the point of a Sword to the Kings Breast, threatned him
with death unless he out of the Window commanded them to desist; but
the _Indians_ for the present disobeying the Kings Mandate, proceeded
to the Election of a Generalissimo, or Commander in Chief over all
their Forces; and because that the Captain, who went to the Port
returned Victor, and brought away a far greater number of _Spaniards_
then he took along with him, there was a Cessation of Arms for three or
four days, till he re-entred the City, and then the _Indians_ having
gatherered together and made up a great Army, fought so long and so
strenuously, that the _Spaniards_ despairing of their safety, called a
Council of War and therein resolv'd to retreat in the dead time of
night and so draw off their Forces from the City: which coming to the
knowledge of the _Indians_ they destroyed a great number Retreating on
the Bridges made over their Lakes in this just and Holy War, for the
causes above-mentioned, deserving the approbation of every upright
Judge. But afterward the _Spaniards_ having recruited and got together
in a Body, they resolved to take the City and carried it at last,
wherein most detestable Butcheries were acted, a vast number of the
people slain, and their Rulers perished in the Flames.

All these horrid Muders being commited in _Mexico_ and other Cities
ten, fifteen and twenty miles distant. This same Tyranny and Plague in
the abstract proceeded to infest and lay desolate _Panuco_; a Region
abounding with Inhabitants even to admiration, nor were the slaughters
therein perpetrated less stupendous and wonderful. In the same manner
they utterly laid wasate the Provinces of _Futepeca, Ipilcingonium_ and
_Columa_, every one of them being as large as the Kingdoms of _Leon_,
and _Castile_. It would be very difficult or rather impossible to
relate the Cruelties and Destruction there made and committed, and
prove very nauseous and offensive to the Reader.

'Tis observable, that they entred upon these Dominions and laid waste
the _Indian_ Territories, so populous, that it would have rejoyced the
hearts of all true Christians to see their number upon no other title
or pretense, but only to enslave them; for at their first arrival they
compel'd them to swear the Oath of Obedience and Fealty to the King of
_Spain_, and if they did not condescend to it, they menace them with
death and Vassalage, and they who did not forthwith appear to satisfie
the unequitable Mandates, and submit to the will and pleasure of such
unjust and Cruel Men were declared Rebels, and accu's of that Crime
before our Lord the King; and blindess or ignorance of those who were
set over the _Indians_ as Rulers did so darken their understanding that
they did not apprehend that known and incontrovertible Maxim in Law,
_That no Man can be called a Rebel, who is not first proved to be a
subject_. I omit the injuries and prejudice they do to the King
himself, when they spoil and ravage his Kingdoms, and as much as in
them lies, diminish and impair all his Right and Title to the
_Indians_, nay in plain English invalidate and make it null and void.
And these are the worthy Services which the Spaniards do for our Kings
in those Countries, by the injust and colourable pretences aforesaid.

This Tyrant upon the same pretext sent two other Captains, who exceeded
him in impiety and cruelty, if possible to the most flourishing and
Feril (in Fruits and Men) Kingdoms of _Guatemala_, Situate toward the
South, who had also received Orders to go to the Kingdoms of _Naco,
Hondera_, and _Guaymura_, verging upon the North, and are Borderers on
_Mexico_ three hundred miles together. The one was sent by Land and
the other by Sea, and both well furnished with Horse and Foot.

This I declare for a Truth, that the outrages committed by these two,
particularly by him that went to _Guatimala_ (for the other not long
after his departure died a violent Death) would afford matter
sufficient for an entire Volume, and when completed he so crouded with
slaughters, injuries, butcheries and inhuman Desolations, so horrid and
detestable as would Ague-shake the present as well as future ages with
terror.

He that put out to Sea vexed all the Maritime Coasts with his cruel
Incursions; now some inhabitants of the Kingdom of _Jucatan_ which is
seated in the way to the Kingdoms of _Naco_ and _Naymura_, to which
places he steered his course, came to meet him with burthens of
Presents and Gifts: and as soon as he approacht them, sent his Captains
with a party of Soldiers to depopulate their Land, who committed great
spoils and made cruel slaughters among them; and in particular a
Seditious and Rebellious Officer who with three hundres Soldiers entred
a Neighboring Country to _Guatimala_, and there firing the Cities and
Murdering all the Inhabitants, violently deprived them of all their
goods, which he did designedly, for the space of an hundred and twenty
miles; to the end that if his Companions should follow them, they might
find the Country laid wast, and so be destroyed by the _Indians_ in
revenge for the dammage they had received by him and his Forces which
hapned accordingly: for the Chief Commander whose order the abovesaid
Captain had disobey'd and so became a Rebel to him, was there slain.
But many other bloody Tyrants succeeded him, who from the year 1524 to
1535. did unpeople and make a Desert of the Provinces of _Naco_ and
_Hondura_ (as well as other places) which were lookt upon as the
Paradise of delights, and better peopled then other Regions; insomuch
that within the Term of these eleven years there fell in those
Countries above two Millions of Men, and now there are hardly remaining
Two Thousand, who dayly dye by the severity of their Slavery.

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